1 From this issue, offence data for 2008-09 and onwards will be compiled and presented according to revised offence classifications. In 2009, the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC), 2008 (Second edition) (cat. no. 1234.0) and the National Offence Index (NOI) 2009 (cat. no. 1234.0.55.001) were introduced into the Criminal Courts, Australia collection. The classification changes affect the Principal Offence that is used to describe the most serious offence type associated with a defendant. Previous issues of this publication were based on the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC), 1997 (cat. no. 1234.0) and the 2002 National Offence Index (NOI).

2 ASOC08 was adopted to provide a more contemporary classification system, taking into account significant legislative changes that have occurred at state and territory level since the first edition was released, as well as satisfying emerging user requirements for offence data. NOI was updated largely to reflect changes made to ASOC.

IMPACT ON 2008-09 DATA AND TIME SERIES

3 All jurisdictions implemented ASOC08 and NOI09 for the provision of offence data for the 2008-09 Criminal Courts collection. Introducing ASOC08 and NOI09 involved remapping local jurisdictional offence codes to the new classification and applying the updated NOI09 to select a Principal Offence for each defendant. This process has had some level of impact to the comparability of the time series for all jurisdictions individually as well as to the national time series.

4 The total number of offence divisions has not changed between the two versions of the ASOC, and only minor changes have been made to division titles. However, ASOC08 includes three additional subdivisions and 16 additional groups. A few subdivisions and groups have been moved and are now inclusions in other subdivisions and groups. Changes have also been made to the inclusions and exclusions of the classification to improve coding. Refer to Appendix 4 for the concordance between ASOC08 and ASOC97. Further detailed information relating to the conceptual changes between ASOC97 and ASOC08 is available in Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC), 2008 (Second edition) (cat. no. 1234.0). Changes to the NOI can also be found in National Offence Index, 2009 (cat. no. 1234.0.55.001). Table 1 below provides a summary view of the major expected changes between divisions, some subdivisions and groups.

Table 1 - Expected major ASOC changes(a)

ASOC Division

Expected change

Reason

01 Homicide and related offences

nil

-

011 Murder

ASOC: Inclusion of conspiracy to murder (from Subdivision 012).

02 Acts intended to cause injury

+

ASOC: Inclusion of stalking (from Division 16).

+

NOI: Relative change in rankings of serious assault resulting in injury (0211) and aggravated robbery (0611). Expect increase in assaults if they co-occur with aggravated robbery, and a decrease in robbery counts.

ASOC: Inclusion of 'committed against a child' as an aggravating factor, from non-aggravated sexual assault (0312)

0312 Non-aggravated sexual assault

-

ASOC: Indecent assaults committed against a child moved to ASOC 0311.

0322 Child pornography offences

+

ASOC: New group in ASOC08 (from Division 13).

04 Dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons

+

NOI: Increase where driving under the influence of alcohol or other substance (0411) and dangerous or negligent operation (driving) of a vehicle (0412) co-occurs with other offences such as 0611, 0711, 0812 and 0829, as NOI rankings have moved from 89 and 90 to 37 and 38 respectively.

05 Abduction, harassment and other offences against the person

+

ASOC: Inclusion of harassment and private nuisance and threatening behaviour (from Division 16). This is not expected to be offset by the exclusion of sexual servitude (from Divisions 5, 6, 13 and 16).

+

NOI: Expect some increase in Abduction/kidnapping (051) and Deprivation of liberty/false imprisonment (052) where aggravated assault (0211 in 1997) has been remapped to 0212. ASOC 0511 and 0521 are ranked above 0212 on the NOI, and are likely to be selected as the most serious offence when offences are remapped and co-occur.

-

NOI: Conversely, may decrease where 0531 co-occurs with offences in Divisions 07, 08, 09 or 11, or groups 1211, 1542, 1559, 1561, 1612, 1631, 1694 or 1695. Has moved from rank 39 to 82.

NOI: Decrease also expected where co-occurs with serious assault offences or abduction and kidnapping (0511) as both offences resulting in injury are now ranked above aggravated robbery in the NOI.

07 Unlawful entry with intent

-

NOI: Decrease where co-occurs with driving under the influence of alcohol or other substance (0411) and dangerous or negligent operation (driving) of a vehicle (0412) as these have moved from NOI rankings of 89 and 90 to 37 and 38 respectively.

08 Theft and related offences

+ (change expected for MCC & CCC only)

ASOC: Inclusion of fare evasion (from Division 09). Further possible increases where theft from retail premises (0823) co-occurs with other offences, as it has moved from a NOI ranking of 138 to 74 (impacts on some co-occurring offences in Divisions 10, 13, 15 and 16).

-

NOI: May be balanced by decreases where theft co-occurs with driving under the influence of alcohol or other substance (0411) and dangerous or negligent operation (driving) of a vehicle (0412), as these have moved from NOI rankings of 89 and 90 to 37 and 38 respectively.

NOI: Decrease where deal or traffic in illicit drugs non-commercial quantity (1022) co-occurs with manufacture or cultivate (103) offences due to a change in ranking of these offences.

103 Manufacture or cultivate illicit drugs

+

NOI: Increase where co-occurs with deal or traffic in illicit drugs non-commercial quantity (1022) offences due to a change in ranking of these offences.

104 Possess and/or use illicit drugs

-

NOI: Decrease where co-occurs with theft from retail premises (0823) as ranking has moved from 138 to 74.

11 Prohibited and regulated weapons and explosives offences

nil

-

12 Property damage and environmental pollution

nil

-

1211 Property damage by fire or explosion

-

NOI: Decrease where co-occurs with driving under the influence of alcohol or other substance (0411) and dangerous or negligent operation (driving) of a vehicle (0412) as these have moved from NOI rankings of 89 & 90 to 37 & 38 respectively.

1212 Graffiti

nil

-

13 Public order offences

-

ASOC: Removal of child pornography and sexual servitude (both to Division 03) and conspiracy offences to other divisions (important to note that not all conspiracy offences have moved out of Division 13 with some recoded to 1312).

14 Traffic and vehicle regulatory offences

nil

-

141 Driver licence offences

nil

-

143 Regulatory driving offences

nil

-

1431 Exceed the prescribed content of alcohol or other substance limit

(a) All divisions other than Division 01 and Division 13 may experience some increase due to inclusion of conspiracy offences with actual offences. Further changes may have also impacted on Division counts in addition to those major changes represented here.

Analysis of impacts - Higher Courts

5 Seven jurisdictions (New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory) supplied 2008-09 Higher Courts data coded to both ASOC97 and ASOC08 which met ABS requirements for analysis of the impact of the changes to the classification for this court level. It should be noted that as part of the migration to ASOC08, jurisdictions also rectified a number of local offence codes that were discovered as being miscoded to ASOC in previous years.

6 Table 2 below shows the results of the analysis of the dual coded extracts for Higher Courts, providing estimated changes to the total movement for selected Principal Offence categories, summed across the jurisdictions mentioned above. Data was analysed by comparing selected state and territory 2008-09 finalised defendants by selected Principal Offence categories, comparing counts based on what the data would have looked like using ASOC97 and what the data are now reflecting using ASOC08. The differences between the two populations largely reflects the impact of the change from ASOC97 to ASOC08 and some changes as a result of correcting miscoding errors in ASOC97.

(a) Includes rectification of miscoding of records not a direct result of changes to ASOC and NOI.

(b) Includes New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory.

(c) Represents 2008-09 data based on the old and new ASOC classification.

(d) Represents difference due directly as a result of ASOC08, NOI09 and rectification of miscoding errors.

(e) See table 8 for information as to what was included in these categories.

(f) There were substantial impacts in these offence categories due to the rectification of miscoding errors, in addition to the classification changes. However these cannot be quantified.

7 Table 2 illustrates that some finalised defendant counts have moved between Principal offence categories as a result of the classification and rectification of miscoding changes; however it also illustrates that the total number of finalised defendants in the Higher Courts for the combined selected states and territories has not been impacted by the classification changes.

8 The following ASOC Divisions recorded changes of 15% or greater:

04 dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons;

05 abduction, harassment and other offences against the person;

13 public order offences;

14 traffic and motor vehicle regulatory offences; and

16 miscellaneous offences.

9 The movements in division 14 were largely due to rectification of miscoding errors and small numbers. All other divisions recorded changes below 15%.

10 At the Subdivision level and/or Group level, four ASOC categories recorded changes of 15% or greater: acts intended to cause injury - other; Groups 0311-0312 and Subdivision 103. Acts intended to cause injury is negligible due to small number counts. Aggravated and non-aggravated sexual assault were largely impacted by miscoding errors between these two categories, as well as ASOC changes.

11 Overall six Divisions had impacts of less than 5%; and a further five divisions had impacts less than 10%.

12 Table 3 below provides an overview of the changes to the Principal Offence counts for all finalised defendants between 2007-08 and 2008-09 with and without the classification changes. The table shows that the number of Higher Courts finalised defendants in 2008-09 increased by 2.8% from 2007-08 (from 16,735 defendants in 2007-08 to 17,202 defendants in 2008-09). The increase in finalised defendant numbers has not been impacted by the classificatory changes.

13 However, given that changes have occurred across divisions, subdivision and groups as a result of changes to ASOC08 and NOI09, the allocation of Principal Offence in some cases will be different than if they were classified to ASOC97 and NOI02. The correction of miscoding errors in 2008-09 could also have resulted in changes between published offence categories, however these were not significant in most cases.

14 To illustrate, Table 3 shows that the number of Higher Courts finalised defendants with a Principal Offence of dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons increased by 31.5%. Approximately 20.7% of this change can be attributed to changes to the classification and/or miscoding rather than an actual increase in defendants for this offence category. Excluding these classification changes, the estimated increase in defendants for this offence category from 2007-08 to 2008-09 would be approximately 10.8%, rather than 31.5%.

15 The interpretation of these movements is further complicated as estimates could not be based on data from all states and territories. As Victoria was unable to provide dual coded data that met ABS analysis requirements for all court levels, the full classificatory impacts could not be measured. Caution should therefore be exercised when using these estimates as the accuracy of the level of movement cannot be fully ascertained as the movements do not reflect any measures for Victoria's Higher Courts. The data should only be used as a guide to interpret the level of movements for Principal Offences between 2008-09 and previous years.

(a) Includes rectification of miscoding of records not a direct result of changes to ASOC and NOI.

(b) Represents published counts for 2007-08 based on ASOC97 and 2008-09 based on ASOC08.

(c) See table 8 for information as to what was included in these categories.

Analysis of impacts - Magistrates' Courts

16 The same analysis undertaken for the Higher Courts was applied to the Magistrates' Courts data. Six jurisdictions (New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory) supplied 2008-09 Magistrates' Courts data dual coded to both ASOC97 and ASOC08 which met analysis requirements.

17 Table 4 below shows the results of the analysis for Magistrates' Courts of the dual coded Courts extracts, providing estimated changes to the total movement for selected principal offence categories summed across the six jurisdictions mentioned above to measure movements that represent classification changes for this court level. The differences largely reflect the impact of changes between ASOC97 and ASOC08, and some change as a result of correcting miscoding errors in ASOC97.

1431 Exceeding the prescribed content of alcohol or other substance limit(e)

59 080

73 650

(f)14 570

(f)24.7

1432 Exceeding legal speed limit

18 597

18 599

2

-

Other(e)

61 317

63 226

1 909

3.1

Total(e)

221 477

239 523

18 046

8.1

15 Offences against justice procedures, gov't security and operations

Breach of violence and non-violence orders(e)

10 426

10 391

-35

-0.3

Other(e)

21 891

22 341

450

2.1

Total(e)

32 317

32 732

415

1.3

16 Miscellaneous offences(e)

12 116

7 722

-4 394

-36.3

Total defendants finalised(e)

526 226

526 226

. .

. .

. . not applicable

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

(a) Includes rectification of miscoding of records not a direct result of changes to ASOC and NOI.

(b) Includes New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

(c) Represents 2008-09 data based on the old and new ASOC classification.

(d) Represents difference due directly as a result of ASOC08, NOI09 and rectification of miscoding errors.

(e) See table 8 for information as to what was included in these categories.

(f) There were substantial impacts in these offence categories due to the rectification of miscoding errors, in addition to the classification changes. However these cannot be quantified.

18 Table 4 shows that the following ASOC Divisions recorded changes of 15% or greater:

04 dangerous or negligent acts endangering persons;

05 abduction, harassment and other offences against the person;

09 fraud, deception and related offences; and

16 miscellaneous offences.

19 The largest impact was Division 05 and most of this was due to ASOC.

20 At the Subdivision and Group level five ASOC categories recorded changes of 15% or greater: aggravated and non-aggravated sexual assault; theft/illegal use of a motor vehicle; regulated public order offences; and exceeding the prescribed content of alcohol or other substance limit.

21 Table 5 below provides an overview of the changes to the Principal Offence counts for all finalised defendants between 2007-08 and 2008-09 with and without the classification changes. To illustrate, the table shows that the number of Magistrates' Courts finalised defendants in 2008-09 increased by 2.6% from 2007-08 (from 619,544 defendants in 2007-08 to 635,924 defendants in 2008-09). The increase in finalised defendant numbers has not been impacted by the classificatory changes.

22 However, given that changes have occurred across divisions, subdivision and groups as a result of changes to ASOC08 and NOI09, the allocation of Principal Offence in some cases will be different than if they were classified to ASOC97 and NOI02. The correction of miscoding errors in 2008-09 could also have resulted in changes between published offence categories, however these were not significant in most cases.

23 For example, Table 5 shows that the number of Magistrates' Courts finalised defendants with a Principal Offence of sexual assault and related offences increased by 14.3%. Approximately 11.4% of this change can be attributed to changes to the classification and/or miscoding rather than an actual increase in defendants for this offence category. Excluding these classification changes, the estimated increase in defendants for this offence category from 2007-08 to 2008-09 would be approximately 2.9%, rather than 14.3%.

24 The interpretation of these movements is further complicated as estimates could not be based on data from all states and territories. As Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory were unable to provide dual coded data that met ABS analysis requirements for all court levels, the full classificatory impacts could not be measured. Caution should therefore be exercised when using these estimates as the accuracy of the level of movement cannot be fully ascertained as the movements do not reflect any measures for Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory's Magistrate's Courts. The data should only be used as a guide to interpret the level of movements in Principal Offence between 2008-09 and previous years.

1431 Exceeding the prescribed content of alcohol or other substance limit(d)

64 403

81 968

17 565

27.3

22.6

4.7

1432 Exceeding legal speed limit

32 515

22 713

-9 802

-30.1

-

-30.2

Other(d)

87 004

79 328

-7 676

-8.8

2.2

-11.0

Total(d)

270 411

279 153

8 742

3.2

6.7

-3.4

15 Offences against justice procedures, gov't security and operations

Breach of violence and non-violence orders(d)

11 012

11 640

628

5.7

-0.3

6.0

Other(d)

23 172

25 791

2 619

11.3

1.9

9.4

Total(d)

34 184

37 431

3 247

9.5

1.2

8.3

16 Miscellaneous offences(d)

17 842

13 570

-4 272

-23.9

-24.6

0.7

Total(d)

619 544

635 924

16 380

2.6

. .

. .

. . not applicable

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

(a) Includes rectification of miscoding of records not a direct result of changes to ASOC and NOI.

(b) Represents published counts for 2007-08 based on ASOC97 and 2008-09 published data based on ASOC08.

(c) Classification impacts are based on the change observed across the six combined jurisdictions who provided dual-coded extracts, and include changes due to miscoding.

(d) See table 8 for information as to what was included in these categories.

Analysis of impacts - Children's Courts

25 The same analysis undertaken for the Higher and Magistrates' Courts was applied to the Children's Courts data. Six jurisdictions (New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory) supplied 2008-09 Children's Courts data coded to both ASOC97 and ASOC08 which met analysis requirements of the impact of the changes to the classification for this court level.

26 Table 6 below shows the results of the analysis of the dual coded Children's Courts extracts, providing estimated changes to the total movement for selected principal offence categories summed across the six jurisdictions mentioned above to measure movements that reflect classification changes for this court level. The differences largely reflect changes between ASOC97 and ASOC08, and some change as a result of correcting miscoding errors in ASOC97.

(a) Includes rectification of miscoding of records not a direct result of changes to ASOC and NOI.

(b) Includes New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

(c) Represents 2008-09 data based on the old and the new ASOC classification.

(d) Represents difference due directly as a result of ASOC08, NOI09 and rectification of miscoding errors.

(e) See table 8 for information as to what was included in these categories.

(f) There were substantial impacts in these offence categories due to the rectification of miscoding errors, in addition to the classification changes. However these cannot be quantified.

27 Table 7 shows that the following ASOC divisions recorded changes of 15% or greater:

05 abduction, harassment and other offences against the person;

09 fraud, deception and related offences;

14 traffic and vehicle regulatory offences; and

16 miscellaneous offences.

28 The most significant impact was division 5.

29 At the Subdivision/Group level one ASOC category recorded changes of 15% or greater: Subdivision 143 - Regulatory driving offences.

30 Table 7 below provides an overview of the changes to the Principal Offence counts for all finalised defendants between 2007-08 and 2008-09 with and without the classification changes. To illustrate, the table shows that the number of Children's Courts finalised defendants in 2008-09 increased by 7.1% from 2007-08 (from 39,412 defendants in 2007-08 to 42,197 defendants in 2008-09). The increase in finalised defendant numbers has not been impacted by the classificatory changes.

31 However, given that changes have occurred across divisions, subdivision and groups as a result of changes to ASOC08 and NOI09, the allocation of Principal Offence in some cases will be different than if they were classified to ASOC97 and NOI02. The correction of miscoding errors in 2008-09 could also have resulted in changes between published offence categories, however these were not significant in most cases.

32 For example, Table 7 shows that the number of Children's Courts finalised defendants with a Principal Offence of traffic and regulatory offences increased by 19.4%. Approximately 16.1% of this change can be attributed to changes to the classification and/or miscoding rather than an actual increase in defendants for this offence category. Excluding these classification changes, the estimated increase in defendants for this offence category from 2007-08 to 2008-09 would be approximately 3.3%, rather than 19.4%.

33 The interpretation of these movements is further complicated as estimates could not be based on data from all states and territories. As Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory were unable to provide dual coded data that met ABS analysis requirements for all court levels, the full classificatory impacts could not be measured. Caution should therefore be exercised when using these estimates as the accuracy of the level of movement cannot be fully ascertained as the movements do not reflect any measures for Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory's Childrens' Courts. The data should only be used as a guide to interpret the level of movements in Principal Offence between 2008-09 and previous years.

ASOC97 did not include 'exceed the prescribed content of other substances limit' (Children's Courts only).

1431

Exceeding the prescribed content of alcohol or other substance limit

ASOC97 did not include 'exceed the prescribed content of other substances limit' (Magistrates' Courts only).

1432

Exceeding legal speed limit

Other

Includes Subdivisions 142 and 144 and Groups 1433 and 1439 of the ASOC (Magistrates' Courts only).

Total

Includes traffic and vehicle regulatory offences, n.f.d. (Magistrates' Courts only). Includes Subdivisions 142 and 144 of the ASOC. ASOC97 did not include 'exceed the prescribed content of other substances limit' .

15

Offences against justice procedures, gov't security and operations

Breach of violence and non-violence orders

Includes ASOC97 Groups 1514 and 1515 and ASOC08 Group 1531 and 1532 (Magistrates' Courts only).